OnARoll 63
slide open, and the phenomenon
that is the Kogi BBQ food truck
kicks into high gear.
Kogi BBQ has been drawing
crowds, and accolades, since 2008,
when two friends hatched a plan to
fuse Korean barbecue with Mex-
ican tacos and then hawk them
from a truck on L.A.’s streets. Food
trucks aren’t new to the city’s land-
scape. For decades they’ve offered
cheap eats along roadsides and at
construction sites across southern
California. But they were often
disparaged as “roach coaches.” So
a Korean-taco truck was “a crazy
idea,” writes Kogi BBQ founder
Roy Choi in his memoir, L.A . Son.
That idea turned out to be “ge-
nius and ingenious,” says Barbara
Fairchild, former editor of Bon Ap-
pétit and a longtime L.A. resident.
The genius came in the kitchen.
Choi, 45, was born in Korea
and immigrated with his family to
L.A. when he was two. Drawing on
flavors from his native cuisine—
fused with Mexican dishes—and his
top-notch chef training from the
Culinary Institute of America, he
concocted the deeply flavored car-
amelized short-rib barbecue and
smoky-spicy salsas that top two
crisp corn tortillas. The resulting
tacos, what Choi calls “Los Angeles
on a plate,” were an instant culi-
nary classic. Through his simple yet
revolutionary cooking, Choi un-
leashed the power of food to cross
cultures and race.
“I picked up on the feeling that
food was important,” he writes,
“and not just a meal to fuel yourself
to do something else.”
What put Kogi on the map,
though, was its early adoption of
social media to lure customers. Ini-
tially Kogi’s small crew didn’t have
much luck selling to buzzed late-
night bar-hoppers outside night-
clubs on Sunset Boulevard. Then
the team tapped into the emerging
It’s 10 p.m. on a chilly Saturday in
Los Angeles. Some 30 people, braving 48oF
weather—hat-and-scarf cold for L.A .—line
up along the sidewalk in front of a converted
step van parked on the street. The windows
By David Brindley
Photographs by Gerd Ludwig
@RiceBallsOfFire
Trucks use Twitter
to broadcast their
daily locations,
such as this car
show and race in
Fontana, California.
Posing in front of
the Rice Balls of Fire
truck, model Tyler
McEwen displays
fare from nearby
@Berlinfoodtruck.